Phil Coulson and the Runes of Power
by hannahsoapy
Summary: The military, SHIELD, and the ICW had been searching for Stark for months with nothing to show for it. So how had he managed to escape by himself?
1. The Missing Billionaire

A/N: Here we are guys! More Phil and Harry, this time with everyone's favorite billionaire playboy genius philanthropist. I think you'll all really like what I do with this one!

Also, if you haven't read 'Phil Coulson and Form R358', it's not necessary reading but it is a short little fic about Phil and Harry dating, soooooo…

* * *

Phil's phone started buzzing in his pocket shortly after the waiter brought them their food.

By agreement, Phil and Harry had decided that their phones would be off to everyone except their bosses during their dates, so the fact that it was making any noise at all meant that it was Fury calling, and it was urgent.

"Sorry," Phil told Harry, pulling his phone out of his pocket, but she didn't look upset.

"It was your turn," she shrugged, taking another bite of her chicken parm.

Unfortunately, she was right. They'd had very few uninterrupted dates – almost all of them had been cut short by some emergency or other. They'd had a conversation at one point about whether it would be a problem, and although they had both had to admit they were probably little more invested in their jobs than was healthy, neither had wanted to give up the relationship over it.

"Coulson," Phil answered the phone.

"He's been found," Fury said, in clipped tones. Phil was immediately alert.

"ETA?"

"Two hours."

"I'll be there," Phil said, and Fury ended the call, apparently having nothing more to say.

"Need a side-along?" Harry asked him, wryly.

"Can you?" Phil asked. "I was just going to have you ask Kingsley for an emergency Portkey."

"No need," Harry said. "I'll take you."

She said it lightly, but Phil knew it was a big deal. She'd been hesitant to tell him about the changes she'd experienced from bringing the Hallows together, even though Phil had assured her he didn't mind at all.

He'd already known about the bringing people back from the dead bit, and it was a logical deduction that the Elder Wand would provide a power boost. The only thing that had surprised him was when she'd admitted to him, on their last date, that she could turn invisible.

"Invisible?" he'd asked incredulously. She'd nodded miserably.

"I didn't even notice until Andromeda brought Teddy over and I opened the door and neither of them could see me," she'd admitted, embarrassment reddening her cheeks. "Then I sort of freaked out, and spent another half-hour trying to figure out how to get myself visible again."

Teddy apparently loved the new disappearing trick, but Phil had been able to tell that her godson's easy acceptance had only softened the impact a little. He honestly had no idea what it was like to feel out of control of one's own body, but he could see Harry had struggled with it.

That she was offering to take him by Side-along farther than any normal person would be able to was a sign of progress and meant that she was becoming more comfortable with herself and her new abilities.

"Alright," he said, accepting the offer. "I've got an hour or so, though. It's about our mutual missing person."

Harry's eyes immediately lit up. "They found Stark?" she whispered, even though they had privacy wards up. "Where? Who had him?"

"No idea. Nick didn't say much, so he probably doesn't know," Phil said. "Actually, you might as well just come with me, don't you think?"

"I was just about to suggest that," she smiled at him, looking pleased.

Stark had been missing for months, and it had been a huge blow to both muggle and magical communities. Stark Industries was the manufacturer behind many common (and uncommon) products of the wizarding world, increasingly more so as wizards became more interested in using muggle inventions.

Initially, the wizarding world had been content to let muggles search for him, but after two months of fruitless searching, the ICW had declared the disappearance of Stark important enough to warrant wizard investigation. Harry herself had been called in to head up the Auror Task Force assigned to the job, although they, too, had spent the last three weeks with no leads.

It had been frustrating for both of them, because not only was Stark still missing, but they'd also both been working so hard that they hadn't had much time together.

This phone call meant the search was over, and maybe they could take a break… for a little while, at least.

* * *

It was embarrassing, thought Phil, that even with the incredible effort that the military, Shield, and the ICW had put into trying to find and rescue Stark, the man had managed to do it himself.

He had been missing a long time, though, and Phil was relieved that he'd gotten out at all – and alive, too.

Phil and Harry had arrived at SI headquarters in time to watch Stark's impromptu and informal press conference. It had unfortunately prevented them from getting an interview with Stark right away, but looking at him, Phil was becoming convinced that an immediate interview wasn't wise.

Stark was clearly a changed man from the experience – and who wouldn't be. They had enough initial information to work with from this press conference. A more detailed interview could wait a few days, at the very least.

Phil looked around, and spotted Ms. Potts, Stark's PA, standing nearby, and whispered to Harry that he was going to speak with her. Harry nodded, keeping her eyes fixed on Stark the whole time.

"Ms. Potts," he said quietly as he came closer to her side. She turned, with a polite expression fixed on her face.

"I'm Agent Coulson with the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division."

"That's quite the name," Ms. Potts said, smiling a little.

It was quite the name, and Phil much preferred just saying 'SHIELD', but it was hard to be taken seriously if you initially introduced yourself as working for an organization that called themselves 'SHIELD'.

"We're working on it," he told her. "We need to get an interview with Mr. Stark, as soon as possible."

He held out his card, which she took.

"Thank you, Agent Coulson, I'll be in touch," she said, but he could see that she was still hesitant.

As she glanced back up at him, he shifted, knowing that it would bring Harry, standing perhaps ten feet behind him, into her view.

Ms. Potts, he was well aware, was a witch, and Phil was not above using Harry's influence to make sure they got that interview. She spotted Harry immediately.

"Oh! Is that…"

"Yes, SHIELD is working with the ICW on Mr. Stark's case."

There was a more thoughtful expression on Ms. Potts' face when she looked at him again.

"Some time this week?" she asked, tapping on her tablet. "Thursday afternoon?"

"Perfect," Phil said. "Thank you, Ms. Potts."

Stark, at that moment, decided his press conference was over, and in the confusion of swirling reporters, Phil escaped from Ms. Potts' side and made his way back to Harry's.

"I got us an interview for Thursday," he told her as they left SI.

"Good," she said. "There was something weird about his chest."

"Good weird, or bad weird?"

Harry opened and closed her mouth, and then was quiet for a moment.

"A little of both, I think."

"I suppose it would be too much to ask to have it one way or the other?"

That at least drew a laugh from her.

"We'll find out for sure on Thursday, I suppose."

* * *

Reviews are proof that Tony Stark has a heart ;)


	2. The Stubborn Billionaire

A/N: I've got this really fun national boards exam (part 1 of 3) coming up next month and studying for it just really sucks the joy out of life. So here I am with a really pathetically short chapter, but it's kind of a miracle I wrote anything. Please enjoy, I'm not sure I'll manage another until after my exam :(

* * *

When Thursday rolled around, Phil drove to Mr. Stark's Malibu home alone.

Ms. Potts greeted him at the door and didn't show any disappointment when Phil informed her that Auror Potter wasn't coming today, due to some other urgent business. She merely nodded crisply and led the way inside.

"Right this way, then," she said, taking him down some stairs. "I do have to warn you, I did remind Mr. Stark about this meeting, but when he's in his workshop he tends to forget things."

By her slight emphasis on the word, Phil guessed it wasn't just a few things Mr. Stark tended to forget.

"Perfectly understandable," he said mildly, as they reached the bottom of the stairs and was immediately met with the sight of Stark's workshop. Even through the glass wall, he could hear the very loud metal rock that Mr. Stark was blasting. The workshop itself looked messy, but not disorganized – Phil couldn't have really said what the difference was, but it was there.

Ms. Potts finished entering her access code, and the music (thankfully) faded down to background noise as they walked in. It also had the effect of drawing out Mr. Stark from the clutter.

"Hey!" the billionaire cried out, head poking up awkwardly from the other side of a table. "Who – oh, Pep."

He disappeared for a moment, and there were several clanking noises, and then he stood up fully.

"Go on, Dum-E, try it out," he said to something on the other side of the table. Phil watched curiously as a single-armed robot hesitantly wheeled into view, slowly opening and closing its metal claw.

"What'd I miss?" Stark addressed them, unfortunately tearing Phil's attention away from the truly fascinating robot.

"Nothing, yet," Ms. Potts said. "This is Agent Coulson from the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division."

Phil suddenly found himself under the full weight of the billionaire's scrutinizing gaze, which he met evenly.

"Somebody really wanted that to spell 'SHIELD', huh?"

"Mr. Stark, we have some questions about your recent kidnapping."

"Sorry, no interviews," Stark said flippantly, grabbing something off the table and beginning to pull it apart.

Phil sighed internally. He wasn't surprised by this response, honestly. His initial assessment at the press conference had been that Stark would be uncooperative, but he'd hoped a straightforward approach would get them a positive response.

"Mr. Stark, at this time we are more concerned about the connections your captors had to manage to go undetected for months than we are about the details of your torture. If you would still prefer not to talk about it," he pulled out his phone, and made a few quick taps, "I have sent a list of the most pertinent questions to Ms. Potts; you may answer and send them in later."

Stark was staring at him in disbelief. "You are disturbingly efficient, Agent… Agent."

Phil said nothing, preferring to take it as a compliment.

"I'll look at your questions," Stark said carelessly, turning away again. "Can't promise I'll be able to tell you anything useful, though."

The conversation was clearly over, at least on Stark's part.

Phil looked at Ms. Potts, who sighed, and quietly led him back out of the house.

"I'll get as many answers as I can, Agent Coulson," she said, shaking her head a little, when they reached his SUV.

"Thank you, Ms. Potts."

He wasn't particularly optimistic about her chances of success.

* * *

Harry apparated directly onto his couch later that evening, and collapsed back into the cushion with a huge sigh.

"I take it your day went well?" he asked her, handing her a little white box with chopsticks balanced on top, which she accepted gratefully. "You smell like a campfire."

She snorted. "That is pretty much what I spent my entire day walking through," she said. "Stark say anything useful?"

"No," Phil said. "He was very resistant, as expected."

Harry nodded, digging into her noodles.

"I left a list of questions with Ms. Potts, although I don't think she'll get anything out of him, either," Phil continued. "He just got out of captivity; he probably won't trust anyone for a while."

"Well," Harry said in between bites, "We found where they were holding him today. Almost everything's burnt to a crisp, and there's crazy magic residue all over the place."

"From what?"

"Dunno," Harry shrugged. "The majority of it wasn't from a spell, although there were a few lingering traces from a ward. It was just… magic."

"You think it's got something to do with Stark?"

"Oh, undoubtedly. I can't say for sure until I get a look, but it could be what I sensed on his chest."

"But Stark's a no-maj," Phil pointed out. "He couldn't have produced magic on his own."

"Well, we also found the body of Ho Yinsen."

Phil frowned. He'd never heard the name before, and he told Harry so.

"He was a humanitarian wizard," Harry told him. "I believe he was working as a doctor in Gulmira. He went missing around the same time Stark did. He didn't have his wand on him, but there are ways around that."

"Stark was injured when they grabbed him, then," Phil said, organizing his thoughts aloud, "and they took the closest medical professional they could get. Stark and Yinsen devised an escape plan together, most likely related to whatever is on Stark, and which generated a lot of magical energy… whomever kidnapped him had some serious magical resources."

"Definitely," Harry confirmed, "but we never found any evidence of a significant threat to Stark from the wizarding world…"

"Or muggle," Phil mused, thinking of the large file of catalogues threats that SI had disclosed when Stark first went missing. They'd investigated every viable threat, but none had panned out. It had been a dead end. There hadn't been – oh.

Phil never cursed, but at that moment he mentally let loose a string of invectives that would've made his mother raise her eyebrow at him.

"I have to visit Stark again."

Phil could already feel a headache coming on just thinking about Stark. Getting information from him would be like pulling teeth. From a chicken. While it was crossing the road in heavy traffic.

"Oh, don't look like that," Harry said, poking his arm to draw his attention back to her. "I won't ditch you this time."

Phil smiled at her in relief and leaned forward to leave a kiss on her cheek. "Have I told you you're my favorite witch?"

"You could stand to mention it a little more often, I reckon."


	3. The Billionaire With a Hole in His Chest

A/N: Idk if I've mentioned this before, but I'm currently in grad school getting my doctorate. School's been moved online, my clinic shifts have been cancelled, and the national boards exam I was supposed to take this week has been postponed at least a month, so I'm home and have lots of time to write!

Please everyone take care of yourselves and protect others by social distancing as much as possible. I know some of you probably still have work, but we all can play a part in reducing the spread of this pandemic! I wish you all healthy and hope this will be over sooner rather than later!

* * *

Harry apparated them to Stark's home the next day, directly to the apparition point at the entrance. Phil hadn't realized that there was an apparition point, although it did make sense – there hadn't been a car other than his in the driveway, so Ms. Potts must have arrived some other way. There wasn't a car today, either, and Phil wondered if she was here.

Phil rang the doorbell, and then they stood and waited… and waited. He was sure they were being watched; he spotted at least three cameras in little alcoves around the entrance.

"You're making that face again," Harry told him.

"What face?"

"You know, your unflappable face," Harry said, gesturing at him vaguely.

"Oh," Phil said, finally understanding what she was talking about. "Barton likes to call it 'Agent-face'."

"That's a good name for it," Harry agreed. "I wish I could make that face."

"You don't need to," he told her. "I like all the things your face does."

Harry, looked up at him, smiling slowly. "Phil, that's the most romantic thing you've ever said to me."

Phil was a little embarrassed. "I'm sure I've said something else –"

"Nope," Harry said, looking pleased. "Nothing else. That's it."

Phil wanted to object very strenuously, but a dignified, electronic British voice interrupted him before he could begin.

"Agent Coulson, Auror Potter, welcome. Please proceed to Mr. Stark's workshop."

The front door slid open smoothly and quietly as the voice finished speaking. Phil, wondering about the voice, which he hadn't heard the last time he was there, led the way inside, since he'd been down to the workshop before.

What they walked in on was quite surprising.

Mr. Stark was lying partially back on a table, shirt off, with a tray of medical equipment sitting out next to him. Ms. Potts was also there, leaning over his chest.

Phil and Harry stopped just inside the entrance, with a silent mutual agreement not to say anything to interrupt the amateur medical procedure occurring in front of them.

"Okay, just reach in there," Mr. Stark was saying, "and feel that wire? Don't let it touch the sides, and – "

With a sudden jerk from Ms. Potts, the wire and whatever was attached came free, and a beeping came from a machine on the other side of the table.

"Oh, Merlin," Ms. Potts said nervously. "Oh, _Merlin_."

"It's fine, it's fine," Stark reassured her, although he sounded distinctly out of breath. "Weren't supposed to do that yet, I'm having a heart attack, but it's okay, just put that over there, pick up the other one – "

Ms. Potts, glancing frequently at the beeping machine, quickly set down what looked like a washer with a wire wrapped around it – a basic magnet, Phil thought – and picked up a circular object that glowed a bright, electric blue. Beside him, Harry made a small noise of surprise at the sight of it.

"There you go, good, slide it right in," Stark told Ms. Potts, and as she complied, she moved just enough that Phil could see her slotting it into a literal _hole_ in the man's chest.

A small _snick _was heard as it settled into place, and the beeping from the machine stopped.

"_Never_ ask me to do that again," Ms. Potts said shakily.

"Yeah, shouldn't need to do that again anyway, but – Agent Agent, how did you get in? Jarvis?"

"I told him to let them in," Ms. Potts said, firmly, turning to face them, and allowing Stark to see that Phil hadn't come alone.

"Auror Potter," Stark exclaimed, his eyes lighting up with undisguised pleasure, "it's an honor, really. To what do I owe the pleasure of a visit from the Girl-Who-Lived?"

"We'd like to talk to you about a few things, Mr. Stark," Harry said calmly.

"Sure," Stark surprised Phil by agreeing easily. "How about over dinner. Tonight? There's a pizza joint in Denver I'm craving, you and I could jet over – "

Ms. Potts coughed delicately, saving Phil from becoming a murderer.

"What?" Stark asked. "I'm free tonight, aren't I?"

"Dinner won't be necessary, Mr. Stark," Harry spoke up, before Ms. Potts could answer. "We'd just like to know if you have any idea who in your company is most likely to have gotten you kidnapped," Stark and Potts exchanged a glance at that, "and what, exactly, you created that can give off that much raw magic."

She nodded at the device sticking out of his chest. Stark glanced down at it in surprise.

"This is giving off _magic_?"

"I told you I wasn't sure the runic configuration was right," Ms. Potts spoke up, glancing nervously at the blue circle again.

"I'm not sure there's anything _wrong_ with it," Harry said, squinting at it. "It looks stable to me. But I assume its purpose wasn't to generate magic?"

Stark shook his head slowly.

"No," he said. "No, I, um, this… this was mostly supposed to be a power supply."

"Mostly?" Phil asked sharply.

"I knew there was a ward," Stark waved a hand in a vaguely circular motion. "I wanted to be sure I had enough electricity to neutralize it and give myself some firepower. The runes were just so I could get it this small, not to…"

"Leave a lake of magic residue over the entire cave system of Afghanistan?" Harry remarked wryly.

"Really?" Stark asked, looking at his chest in fascination. He jumped off the table, pulling a ratty t-shirt over his head, and headed for a cluttered back corner of the workshop. "I'll have to get a scanner set up to see how much it's putting off. Jarvis, new file, please."

"Of course, sir," said the same electronic, distinguished British voice that had greeted them at the door. "What shall I call it?"

"Mr. Crowley," Stark said, tossing several items on his workbench and then reaching up to activate a holographic display.

It was like the three of them had ceased to exist, Phil thought, not sure if he was more annoyed or in awe at Stark's focus. Ms. Potts sighed, drawing his attention back to her.

"All the board members will be at the Maria Stark Foundation gala this weekend," she said. "You're welcome to attend, as well."

"Thank you, Ms. Potts," Phil said. "We'll see you there."

He and Harry showed themselves out, leaving the unfortunate PA to sort out her boss.

"He didn't tell us everything," Phil stated, when they'd apparated back to his office.

"No," she agreed. "But it makes me feel better to have gotten a good look. At least I know it won't kill him. Probably. The _magic_ won't kill him. I have no idea about all that electricity, but I'll let Hermione look at my memory. She'll know."

"Stark's a genius. If he doesn't think it'll kill him, it won't."

He hoped. Stark did have a history of being reckless, but as far as he knew, never suicidal. It was more concerning to Phil that the billionaire had an unidentified threat in his own company. He'd get as many analysts digging into the board members over the next few days before the gala as he could – which reminded him…

"Do you have something to wear?" he asked Harry, who startled at his question. "To the gala?"

"Er, yeah, I'll dig something up," she waved a hand airily. "I've got to check in with Draco at the office, but I'll see you later?"

Phil nodded, but as soon as she had twirled away, he fished a card out of his pocket.

* * *

"I hate you," Harry said the following evening, without much venom.

"Oh?" Phil feigned ignorance, but he was internally feeling very smug.

"Hermione and Ginny kidnapped me from work today and forced me to go _dress shopping,_" she shuddered dramatically. "I know you were behind it."

"Find anything?"

Harry glared at him for a few seconds. "Yes. But you didn't have to –"

"I've seen your closet. The nicest thing you have in there is from your Order of Merlin ceremony after the war."

"It's a perfectly nice dress!"

It was a perfectly nice dress… nearly a decade ago. It was also the only dress she had in her entire closet. The wizarding world might have ignored her showing up to formal events in pants because she was the Girl-Who-Lived, but she was sure to attract unwanted no-maj attention if she showed up like that tomorrow.

Phil just looked at her, and she finally threw her arms up in defeat.

"Ugh, fine, thank you," she said. "You're not going to see what I got until the gala, though."

"Oh, no," Phil said, utterly failing at concealing his smile, "I have to wait a whole twenty-four hours. Such torture."


	4. The Flirtatious Billionaire

Harry knocked on his door instead of apparating into his apartment before the gala, and then smirked at him when he couldn't do much more than stare at her.

She really did look amazing in the dress – he had to hand it to Ginny and Hermione, she looked incredible. After he'd finally managed to stammer that out, he somehow led them both down to Lola and drove them to the benefit.

They'd put off their arrival long enough that nearly all the other attendees were already there, so they wouldn't draw too much attention to themselves when they snuck in through the side door. As much as Phil thought that Harry deserved to be shown off on a red carpet, attention was not their friend tonight. They split up shortly after making their way inside, both of them having a list of people who they would make contact with tonight, and bug with a SHIELD-developed device that would scan their computers when they went home, and send the data to Phil's hand-picked analysts to sift through.

Harry, of course, only had to walk two steps in the general direction of her first target before he spotted her and made a move himself. Phil crushed the stray tendril of jealousy and looked around the hall. He'd have to take a different approach.

Three of his six targets had been tagged when Stark made his entrance, flamboyantly late. He heard a sigh off to his side and turned to see Ms. Potts, a few feet away, shaking her head.

His movement caught her attention, and she smiled.

"I suppose I should be happy he showed up at all," she said. Phil inclined his head, acknowledging that that was, indeed, accurate. It would be easier to herd a cat than Tony Stark.

"Your evening is going well?" she asked. It was polite of her, although he couldn't really tell her exactly what they were doing.

"Yes, it is," he said, his eyes searching the room for Harry. He'd just spotted her across the room, already cornered by Stark, when Ms. Potts spoke again.

"Would you mind walking with me for a moment?"

She'd moved closer while he'd been looking around, and he barely stopped himself from starting in surprise.

"I don't mind at all," Phil said, wondering why exactly she needed to use him as a shield at the moment. He followed her distracted gaze and found Tony Stark at the end of it, still shamelessly flirting with Harry. Ah. Well, he couldn't really blame her. He was feeling not a little bit jealous, himself.

"Your girlfriend looks beautiful," Ms. Potts said, as they wandered through the hall.

"Thank you," Phil said automatically, and then, as Ms. Potts smiled, realized his slip. He could see why she'd lasted longer as Stark's PA than anyone else had. "We haven't made the decision to go public with our relationship yet."

Not that they hadn't discussed it, several times, at length. They were both aware it was bound to hit the front pages in the wizarding world eventually, but, as Harry said, she was enjoying a relationship that was (so far) free from public speculation. Phil obviously had zero experience with his personal life being exposed to the press, and so he had very wisely decided to let Harry take the lead in that area.

"Oh, no," Ms. Potts was saying, "you can trust me not to go to the Ghost with this. I just think you two are sweet together."

Phil tried to conceal his surprise, caught a little off guard. He couldn't say it was the first time someone had complimented them, but because they were keeping it private, it had pretty much only been their friends that had given their opinions on Phil and Harry's relationship.

He'd gone with Harry once to one of the Weasley's monthly get-togethers, and it had been… overwhelming.

Phil had been an only child of only children, and there wasn't much in the way of extended family on either side. While moving around the world hadn't prevented Phil from making friends, he hadn't had much experience in the way of these kind of huge social gatherings.

Especially when it was a social gathering of Weasleys. It was incredibly overwhelming, but Phil had thought he'd done pretty well. He'd avoided accepting anything from George Weasley, endured Mrs. Weasley's mothering, attempted to explain how a taser worked to Mr. Weasley, and then he'd been threatened by every red-headed person there (including Harry's godson Teddy, who was going through a ginger phase).

Once all the Weasleys (and Harry) had gone out for a game of Quidditch, however, he and Hermione had a very interesting conversation about the treatment of magical creatures around the globe. From his travels when he was younger, Phil was very well-versed in this subject, and Harry had to peel him away when it was time to go.

Phil pretty much only had Audrey as a friend outside of SHIELD, and he hadn't told her who he was dating until he took Harry with him to one of her concerts. When Harry had excused herself to go to the bathroom, Audrey had practically given him a shovel talk right there, which Phil thought was a little backward, but he knew it really meant that she liked them together, so he was alright with it.

"Thank you," he told Ms. Potts, appreciating the compliment.

They were approaching Stark and Harry now, and he could just hear their conversation.

"Really, believe me, it is!" Stark was saying.

"I don't believe you at all," Harry laughed, and Phil felt another irrational surge of jealousy.

"Well, I'll just have to show you, then," Stark said. "How does tomorrow night sound? I'll pick you up, we'll make a night of it."

"Hmmm, tempting," Harry said, but her gaze briefly twinkled over to meet Phil's. "I'd love to, but you'll have to find your own date."

Phil felt an inordinate amount of satisfaction.

"What?" Stark gasped. "The Girl-Who-Lived, in a relationship? You must have been keeping that under wraps; I hadn't heard of it. Who's snatched you up, then?"

"Mr. Stark," Ms Potts interrupted him. Stark, Phil was gratified to see, turned quickly, with an expression on his face akin to that of a child caught sneaking cookies.

"Pep!" he exclaimed. "Have you heard? Lightning here is off the market. My only hope is that she breaks up with him soon so I can have a chance."

"I did hear you, actually," she frowned, "and I don't think Miss Potter appreciates her personal life being talked of so loudly."

Phil found himself slightly amused at their interplay, and Harry did, too, if the laughing green eyes that he could see on the other side of Stark were any indication.

His attention was drawn back when Stark exclaimed, "C'mon, Pep, you want to dance? Let's dance, let's go."

"Mr. Stark, I'm your PA," Ms. Potts objected, but it was clearly half-hearted, and Stark waved off her protests easily.

"Nobody cares! Nobody's even looking," he said, grabbing her hand and pulling her out onto the dance floor. "Did I buy you that dress?" Phil heard him ask her, before they were out of earshot, and it was clear Harry heard it, too, if her giggle was anything to go by.

"Want to bet on it?" she asked, tilting her head towards Stark and Potts. Phil looked at them for a few moments.

"One week."

"Please. It'll be at least another month."

They shook on it.


	5. The Billionaire Everybody Wanted to Hex

A/N: I know I am really bad at consistent updates, but please be reassured that this fic is now fully plotted, and there are probably going to be three or four more chapters? No promises on when they'll appear, but it will be completed (eventually).

* * *

Over the next week, Harry waited for Phil to slowly begin receiving information back from the bugs they'd dropped on Stark's board members, but the data was disappointing. The bugs yielded nothing relevant to Stark's case. They did reveal evidence of some minor embezzlement by one of the board members, which Phil turned over to Ms. Potts, but not a hint that any of them were complicit in Stark's kidnapping.

It was incredibly frustrating to not have any leads at all.

Harry and her ICW team, which consisted of Ron, an American Auror called Brian Williams, and a Romanian Auror named Yaron Matras, worked well together, and Harry knew she couldn't have asked for a better team unless Hermione was also on it. (And Harry _had_ asked her to join, but she was already too invested in her projects within the Ministry, and becoming the Minister of Magic herself within the next five years.) No, the tricky part was Afghanistan itself. The single Auror that the Afghani Ministry had sent to act as liaison had laughed when Harry had explained where they needed to search. She'd thought he was being rude, at first, but it was clear now that he was simply better aware of the futility of their task.

Finding where Stark had been initially held had been no problem but tracing down where those who had kidnapped him had run off to was near impossible. There were miles and miles of mountains and caves, and although there hadn't been nearly enough evidence to suggest that a wizard had actually been with the kidnappers, the ward-stone meant there was some connection, and the fact that they still hadn't found them yet… well, Harry was sure they had obtained more magical means of hiding themselves.

Harry sighed and dropped her head down on the stack of forms in front of her. She'd finally had to leave the other three on the search while she caught up on paperwork. She did have to keep the ICW up to date, even if there was nothing to report, but she really didn't like doing paperwork herself.

She was wistfully daydreaming of watching Phil do his paperwork, and of the look of totally focused concentration he got, when Auror Williams' jaguar Patronus leapt through the wall. Just the sight of it made her spring to attention; he wouldn't have sent it if there wasn't urgent news.

"It's Stark," came Williams' voice from the jaguar, a little breathlessly. "We finally had something; they're called Ten Rings, but seems like a couple rings broke off, 'cuz we Traced some of them down to this place called Gulmira. We were establishing a perimeter when Stark just flew in, he's wearing some kind of flashy metal armor thing, shooting off bullets and rockets and what have you. Looks amazing, if I'm honest, but he's kinda obliterating all our terrorists here… ah, he's just flown off again – Merlin, he's fast. We'll see if there's anyone left to bring in, I guess."

The Patronus had begun to fade during the last sentence and had completely gone by the last word, but Harry was already up and moving, silently cursing Stark's interference. Ron and the others had Gulmira under control; she needed to see if Phil could get eyes on Stark.

With a quiet pop, she appeared in Phil's office, although the only indication he gave that he was aware of her presence was a twitch of his fingers, as he was completely engrossed by a rapidly moving surveillance feed on his computer.

"Oh, good, you've got him," Harry said in relief, leaning over his desk to get a better look.

"Don't tell me," Phil said. "That's Stark?"

"Who else?" Harry snorted, just as two F-15 aircraft slid into position behind Stark. "Er, should you maybe call the Army off?"

She watched nervously as Stark, enclosed in his… body armor, for lack of a better word, dipped and twirled, putting the pilots to the test.

"I think he'll be fine," Phil said. "Besides, Colonel Rhodes can take care of the Air Force, if need be."

"If you say so," Harry shrugged, willing to take his word on it, and then stuck an elbow out to him. "We should head him off in Malibu. Want a lift?"

Phil smiled and took her arm.

Harry and Phil had barely cleared the apparition point at Stark's Malibu home when Ms. Potts Apparated in behind them. She didn't look surprised to see them at all.

"I'm going to hex him," she said to Harry and Phil fiercely, in greeting.

"I hope you'll let us ask a few questions first?" Harry said a bit weakly in the face of her fury.

"Yes, yes," Ms. Potts said, striding past them towards the house, stilettos clicking rapidly. Harry and Phil exchanged a glance of shared awe and fear of the woman, and then quickly followed after her.

As they were walking down the drive, a noise in the sky caught Harry's attention, and she looked up to see the flashy red-and-gold armor that they had just been watching on Phil's monitor streaking in, fast.

Ms. Potts had stopped to observe it as well, and her eyes flashed angrily as it turned, slowing to make a descent somewhere into the back of the house. She started walking again as it disappeared from sight, but Harry could hear her muttering various hexes and jinxes beneath her breath. She did not envy the greeting Stark was going to get from his PA, and only wished it wouldn't be completely unprofessional of her to hex him, too.

As it was, they let Ms. Potts lead the way down to the workshop, where they found Tony Stark stuck in some strange apparatus which was attempting to remove parts of the metal armor from the lower half of his legs, with the rest of it already off and scattered on the floor around him.

"What," began Ms. Potts, dangerously, and Stark, as well as the machine, froze in place, "were you thinking?"

"Well, y'see Pep, I just –"

Ms. Potts drew her wand and pointed it at the nearest armor piece.

"No, no, no, no, no," Stark said frantically. "Okay, okay, I give, just let me get the rest of this off, yeah?"

Ms. Potts made no objection, and so Harry and Phil waited with her while Stark and his machine removed the boots of his armor.

"Uh, alright, so um," Stark glanced nervously at Ms. Potts' wand, "there was a news story I saw last week after the gala – actually, no, a reporter at the gala showed me the pictures first, but I didn't believe her, probably because I slept with her. Christine something, you remember her Pep?"

Ms. Potts did not look amused, and Harry didn't blame her in the slightest. Stark cleared his throat and continued.

"Right, so I recognized one of the guys in the shots from the newscast, he was – he was one of… and I couldn't just –"

He stopped and turned away, picking up something from his workbench and fiddling with it.

"Tony," Ms. Potts said, sounding much calmer than before. "You can't just run off to a foreign country and start shooting up terrorists!"

Harry had been thinking, trying to make the unspoken connection that Stark had avoided saying aloud, and then it hit her.

"Yinsen." Harry felt Phil straighten a little next to her and knew that he understood where she was going. Stark was looking at her, startled, and Ms. Potts was frowning in apparent confusion.

"He was from Gulmira," Harry continued, and Stark nodded jerkily.

"They killed his family, and then they killed him, and I couldn't just _watch_ as they went back there!"

Harry sighed and rubbed her forehead. Stark just had to be the only kidnap victim with the resources and capabilities to actually retaliate against his own kidnappers.

"And you didn't think to alert SHIELD or the ICW of this information?" Phil's voice was calm, but Harry was sure he wasn't. He was often willing to bend the rules – sometimes surprisingly far – but Harry knew his biggest pet peeve was poor communication. It was the reason that Barton had gotten Phil a customized name plate for his desk last Christmas that said: 'Talk to me'. It had been his favorite gift and Harry couldn't even be mad at Barton for getting a better gift than her because it was so _perfect_.

Anyway, Stark definitely didn't look like he'd realized just how annoyed he'd just made Phil; in fact, he only looked more defiant.

"Like that would've gotten anything done," he muttered, obviously not trying to keep his voice down.

"My team was already on-site in Gulmira and putting up containment wards when you arrived," Harry told Stark, finally letting some of her frustration at his actions through. "Hopefully, some of them are still alive to interrogate so we can track down the rest of the Ten Rings."

Stark finally did look guilty at that, cutting his eyes away and down to the floor, and Ms. Potts appeared to be pleased that someone was finally driving the point home. Harry made a split-second decision.

"Well, if you're going to help, you'd better show us what your armor can do."


End file.
